Manchester United will be pretty happy with their transfer business this summer, but there is still one player who will go down as the one that got away.
Highly-rated 19-year-old Renato Sanches was scouted numerous times by Red Devils officials, but ended up joining Bayern Munich in a £30million deal.
The Portuguese midfielder looked hugely impressive in their victorious Euro 2016 campaign, despite controversy about his age.
And that was just a glimpse of what United missed out on. Rumour had it at the time that former Old Trafford boss Louis van Gaal had vetoed the move because he didn’t rate the player, but that seemed unlikely when United chiefs knew that the Dutchman was on the way out.
Munich’s chief executive, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, has now revealed that his side were able to beat United in the race for Sanches’ signature because of the Reds’ managerial situation – but it wasn’t Van Gaal’s fault.
“We knew very well that Renato had a firm offer from Manchester United,” Rummenigge told German publication Bild.
“I heard that the United deal couldn’t be completed, as they didn’t know who their next manager would be.
“We invited Benfica’s president and Sanches’ agent to Madrid and that night we shook hands on the transfer.”
If that’s the case, it will raise questions about why it took United so long to install Mourinho, as he was on their radar from December when he was sacked by Chelsea.
Had United been able to speed up negotiations, they might have nabbed Sanches after all, and their midfield, which still needs a little work judging by the defeat to City, could look very different.
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